What's up, Square Enix? It's been over six months since you brought one of your classic RPGs out of mothballs for another round on Android. Since you're just about out of Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests (or at least entries of those franchises that will run on mobile hardware), I see you've jumped onto the Mana series. The first entry in the long-running action-RPG saga, which was actually released as "Final Fantasy Adventure" for the Game Boy a bit less than 25 years ago, is now available in the Play Store.

Adventures of Mana is technically a PlayStation Vita port, though you might not know it if you live outside of Japan - for some reason Square Enix didn't release the portable console version anywhere else. If you've played any of the older Mana series, you know how it goes: fast-paced fantasy combat with real-time controls is overlaid on a creative anime-inspired story that's been well-received by fans of the genre. Gameplay is top-down, as in the original version, but the graphics have been updated to the super-deformed 3D style that Square Enix prefers for portable RPGs.

Unfortunately the usual drawbacks of Square Enix's mobile development apply here: the game won't run on Android TV hardware, and there's no mention of external controller support (see below). Given the fast-paced combat, that's even more of a blow than usual for a Squaresoft RPG. Adventures of Mana is predictably pricey at $14, but at least the developers haven't shoe-horned any in-app purchases into the classic title.

It looks like I was wrong about controller support - while the game wouldn't work with my NES30, I tried it with a generic Bluetooth controller and it does support physical buttons. Apologies for the confusion.

It didn't work with the first one I tested, but after your comment I tried another one and updated the article.

It's not showing as compatible with the SHIELD TV. Maybe you can side-load it, but for a $14 game from a gigantic publisher, that shouldn't be necessary.

humulos

Ah, great! I'll test a few other Xinputs and see if I get any results from those as well.

SuckIt

Please...stfu about Android TV support... Squeenix forgot to check a box when they compiled to give it OFFICIAL Android TV support... nobody cares if you sideloaded the app.

humulos

I'm offering a solution for people who want to play the game on their Android TV, which some people will definitely want. If all you want to do is complain, that's fine, but I'd rather try to make things work instead.

SuckIt

People that know how to sideload apps know how to do it and will do it. You're not being helpful.

humulos

Not all sideloaded apps work on Android TV, but I see your point. Would it be more helpful if I made out with you instead?

Nathan J

Support for "some" controllers might as well be no controller support. Is there a comprehensive list of games each controller supports, or is it as much of a crap shoot as buying a Motorola phone and expecting updates?

I have a wired Xbox 360 controller and a USB OTG cable. Works with my Super NES emulator...

humulos

I can confirm support for the Logitech F710 in Xinput mode. I tried testing with my Xbone controller, but I can't get that to work at all on my phone or Nexus Player (like, for anything, not just the game) I have a wired 360 controller at work I will try tomorrow.

humulos

Here's a video of it on my Nexus Player, in case anyone is interested. (in case you are wondering why I slash at nothing a lot, you are kind of locked into each sword swing, something I have to get used to)

Nice video! Say, could you please share which skill classes are available in this game?

humulos

So, there's not traditional classes per say. In the original game you just chose what stats you wanted to increase at level up, and it looks like they just renamed the stat increases tovmath classic FF jobs. You do gain different weapons and magic though!

dextersgenius

Oh, thank you. Not my type of game then. :(

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Okay, this is great and all, BUT...where's FF7 and FF9?

Tsun_Pooka

And more importantly, WHERE'S FF8? Did it land on a mobile platform in another dimension or something?

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Squre Enix doesn't like FF8 :(

Sean O’Connor

No Shield TV support :(.

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Spence1115

Works on other Android TV devices, so it not working on the Shield TV is surely a mistake? I hope they change it soon anyway...

SuckIt

How can Squeenix f things up so bad everytime? Every! Time!

humulos

I was able to sideload it into my Nexus Player, you may be able to do the same. I made a backup of the Apk using Amaze on my phone, put it on a flash drive, used ES explorer on the Nexus Player to install the app from the flash drive and it worked great

Allen

I'd probably be more inclined to buy Square-Enix's mobile titles if they seemingly showed better support for them. I'm still waiting for Chaos Rings to be updated to work on more recent Android versions.

Can someone tell me why they called it "Adventures of mana" if it's part of the final fantasy series? As far as I recall, the mana series is it's own thing, why are they mixing them now if this is just a remake/port?

piichan

This 1st time they released the Mana series, it was considered a spin-off of Final Fantasy.

Also, this isn't the 1st time the game has gone through a remake. Sword of Mana for the GBA is the 1st remake and that actually looks way better than this :/

humulos

Don't be fooled! The Sword of Mana is much more a reimagining than a remake, and so a LOT was changes from the original game boy version, including most of the mechanics. This remake is far truer to the original, which is good, because Sword of Mana made some pretty crappy changes

piichan

Sorry, I was referring mostly to the art style than the gameplay. There's a certain style that can only be found on the older Mana games that's now lost with the generic chibi style that S-E now uses.

humulos

Oh, that I definitely agree on. That aet style was super unique and very pretty

My1

how about adding some REAL screenshots?

Diego Opazo SV-Cross

Some people on the review section says that it has Moga support.

Skymint29

Hello, the link you posted sends me to a page in Japanese, is that the Global version?

riki

so, this is strage, in the web version of the site, the game is in english, and the play store version is in japanese o_O